A member of the Cherokee Nation, Mary Golda Ross is renowned for her contributions to NASA's Planetary Flight Handbook, which...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• A member of the Cherokee Nation,
  • Mary Golda Ross
    • is renowned
      • for her contributions to NASA's Planetary Flight Handbook,
        • which (?) detailed mathematical guidance
          • for missions to Mars and Venus.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

• 'A member of the Cherokee Nation, Mary Golda Ross'
  • We're being told about Mary Golda Ross
  • She was a member of the Cherokee Nation

• 'is renowned for her contributions to NASA's Planetary Flight Handbook'
  • She's famous for her contributions to this particular NASA handbook
  • The handbook is about planetary flight

Now here's where we need to fill in the blank:

• 'which ______ detailed mathematical guidance for missions to Mars and Venus'

Let's look at our choices:

• A. provided (simple past - a complete verb)
• B. having provided (a participle form)
• C. to provide (an infinitive form)
• D. providing (a participle form)

What do we notice about the structure here?

• 'Which' starts a new piece of information about the Handbook
  • 'Which' is referring back to 'NASA's Planetary Flight Handbook'
  • This creates what we call a relative clause - extra information about something just mentioned

• In this clause, 'which' (the Handbook) is the subject
  • We need to say what the Handbook did
  • So we need a complete verb form that can serve as the main verb of this clause

• The Handbook [verb] detailed mathematical guidance for missions to Mars and Venus
  • What did the Handbook do? It gave/supplied this guidance
  • We need a simple, complete verb form to express this action

So we need provided - the simple past tense that works as the main verb of the relative clause. The Handbook provided (gave/supplied) detailed mathematical guidance.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Complete Verbs in Relative Clauses

When you add extra information about something using "which," "that," or "who" (called relative pronouns in grammar terms), you need a complete verb form to create a proper clause:

Pattern: [noun] + which/that/who + [complete verb] + [additional information]

Examples:

• With complete verb (correct): The handbook, which provided guidance, was invaluable.
  • "which" = subject (referring to handbook)
  • "provided" = complete past tense verb
  • Creates a complete relative clause

• Without complete verb (incorrect): The handbook, which providing guidance, was invaluable.
  • "providing" alone is not a complete verb form
  • The clause is incomplete

In our sentence:

• NASA's Planetary Flight Handbook, which provided detailed mathematical guidance
  • "which" refers to the Handbook
  • "provided" is the complete past tense verb
  • This tells us what the Handbook did - it provided the guidance